The schools from Alabama that can claim national titles are, clockwise from top left: West Alabama (shown in 1971 when it was Livingston University), Jacksonville State (shown in 1992), Tuskegee (shown in 2007), Auburn (shown in 2010), North Alabama (shown in 1995), Troy (shown in 1984) and Alabama (shown in 2009). (The Birmingham News illustration/Kent Kasey)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Larry Blakeney admits it. He's not a neutral observer. He's lived and worked in this state his whole life.

Born in Birmingham. Raised in Gordo. Graduated from Auburn and got a master's from Montevallo.

Coached at three different high schools and two different universities, 14 years as an Auburn assistant and the past 20 years as the head coach at Troy.

You don't have to twist his arm to get him to support the following declaration: Alabama is the ultimate football state.

"As far as interest and participation and winning and bowls and championships, it's got to be," Blakeney said. "Other folks can make claims. If this isn't the best football state in America, I need to know who it is."

In other words, he already knows.

You don't have to be a scholar to know how rich this state's football history is. One way a state becomes the ultimate football state is by winning the ultimate football prize, the national championship, and the numbers there are staggering.

Seven different universities in this state have combined to claim 31 national titles, and it's not just the University of Alabama with 13 championships and Auburn University with a pair of its own.

It's Tuskegee with eight Historically Black College and University titles, stretching from 1924 to 2007.

It's Troy with three championships, one in the NAIA in 1968 and two more in Division II in 1984 and 1987.

It's North Alabama with three straight Division II titles in 1993, 1994 and 1995.

It's West Alabama with an NAIA title in 1971 and Jacksonville State with a Division II crown in 1992.

Think of it this way: Since 1924, the longest this state has gone without one of its schools claiming a national championship has been the 15 years between Alabama's 1941 title and Auburn's in 1957.

Other than that lull, the longest title-less drought has been the six years between Alabama in 1934 and 1941 and the six years between Tuskegee in 2000 and 2007.

"Wow," said former Alabama coach Bill Curry, who's growing a new program at Georgia State. "That's incredible. There won't be anything like that anywhere else."

That consistency in performance, to borrow a Nick Saban phrase, shows that Alabama is not just elite at the top but from top to bottom. You've heard of teams that are deep. When it comes to college football, this entire state is deeper than the Gulf of Mexico.

"It certainly starts with Auburn and Alabama," Blakeney said, "but everybody has their own place."

As rich as the history is, we may be living in the best of times in the ultimate football state.

In terms of national prominence, it does start with Alabama and Auburn. The Tide and Tigers have dominated the landscape the past two years.

In 2009, Alabama won the Heisman Trophy (Mark Ingram), the Butkus Award (Rolando McClain), the Broyles Award (Kirby Smart) and the Bowden Award (Nick Saban) en route to a 14-0 season, the best in school history, and the BCS Championship.

In 2010, Auburn won the Heisman Trophy (Cam Newton), the Lombardi Award (Nick Fairley), the Broyles Award (Gus Malzahn) and the Bowden Award (Gene Chizik) on the way to a 14-0 record, the best in school history, and a BCS Championship of its own.

It's been a run of almost unprecedented proportion.

The only other state to have two straight Heisman winners from different schools in that state: California, with UCLA quarterback Gary Beban in 1967 and USC running back O.J. Simpson in 1968.

The only other state to have more than one school win consecutive national championships at the highest level since the AP poll began in 1936: Texas with TCU in 1938 and Texas A&M in 1939.

Curry called the recent avalanche of achievement by Alabama and Auburn "more staggering" than the state's historical number of national titles.

"I don't care how good they were in Texas in the 1930s or California in the 1960s," Curry said. "That was not the same level of football."

Even better, as usual, the success the past two years didn't stop with Alabama and Auburn.

North Alabama made the Division II playoffs the past two years and announced a plan to move up from Division II to Division I-AA.

Jacksonville State returned to the Division I-AA playoffs in 2010 for the first time in six years.

Alabama A&M in 2009 and Alabama State in 2010 won their divisions to advance to the SWAC Championship Game.

Tuskegee won the 2009 Pioneer Bowl, the only NCAA-sanctioned bowl game for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, its fourth victory in that game in five years.

South Alabama has started a football program of its own, which is destined for Division I-A and the Sun Belt, with 17 straight victories, going 7-0 in 2009 and 10-0 in 2010.

Then there's Blakeney and Troy.

The Trojans won their fifth straight Sun Belt Conference championship in 2010 and capped the season with a victory in the New Orleans Bowl. In the history of the Football Bowl Subdivision, only three schools have a longer streak of conference titles:

• BYU won 10 straight WAC titles from 1976 to 1985.

• USC won seven straight Pac-10 titles from 2002 to 2008.

• Ohio State won six straight Big Ten titles from 1972 to 1977.

Blakeney credited the Iron Bowl rivalry -- Alabama and Auburn pushing each other to championship heights -- with causing a positive trickle-down effect on the other schools in the state.

"That's made other folks aspire to be the best you can be," he said.

Why is Alabama, despite being 23rd in the nation in population, the best football state in the country, historically and at this very moment? Does the passion for the sport drive the performance or does the success ignite and fuel the passion?

A lot of observers have offered a lot of opinions on the subject. Curry believes there's a simple answer and offered a story to explain.

He remembered getting his hair cut in College Park, Ga., as a high school sophomore during football season. The barbers were complimenting the play of Curry's teammates in their previous game. Then they turned to him.

"You weren't hitting," they said.

"It crushed me," Curry said. "Football was so important to us. (But) it's more important in Alabama."